{"title":"Can Tomb Terminology Be Used as a Criterion for Dating the Pyramid Texts?","authors":"Brendan H. Hainline","doi":"10.1163/18741665-bja10018","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-bja10018","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Scholars have long recognized that some Pyramid Text utterances display signs of age that indicate a pre-monumental history of use. Two utterances in particular, PT 355 and PT 662, have been dated by scholars as early as the Pre- or Early Dynastic, based on lines interpreted as describing a pre-pyramidal royal tomb-form (a mudbrick mastaba or a sand grave). This article evaluates the assumptions upon which these claims are based and uses this question to examine the complex interaction between lexical semantics, religious beliefs, and material culture. This article will show that tomb terminology is not a definitive indicator of an early date of composition of Pyramid Text utterances, as the association of lexemes with specific archaeological building-types is problematized by innovations in language, religion, and architecture that occurred in the early Old Kingdom, as well as changes in modern scholarship’s understanding of the context and use of the Pyramid Texts.","PeriodicalId":41016,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Egyptian History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2023-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45963013","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Carrying Inundation Blessings: A Discussion of Pilgrim Flask Amulets in Ancient Egypt","authors":"L. Kilroe","doi":"10.1163/18741665-bja10016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-bja10016","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000Pilgrim flasks were a ceramic form that first appeared in Egypt in the Eighteenth Dynasty. A small quantity of faience amulets in the shape of pilgrim flasks are known in several museum collections, but have not been studied in detail. The amulets are standardized in material and shape and, based on the limited contextual information, likely reflect a specific aspect of local belief, especially since their worn surface and bail for stringing suggests they were worn and touched regularly. It is suggested that these amulets are chronologically restricted and date between the Third Intermediate Period and Late Period, and are related to the contemporary appearance of New Year’s Flasks – a type of pilgrim flask predominantly made in faience and thought to be for celebration of the Nile inundation. By presenting a macro-focus on a little-known amulet type, it is hoped this study will expand our understanding of religious ideology, symbolic meaning, and the changing socio-cultural context in the Third Intermediate Period.","PeriodicalId":41016,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Egyptian History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46391647","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Riverbank Marketplaces in Ptolemaic Egypt","authors":"Aneta Skalec","doi":"10.1163/18741665-bja10014","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-bja10014","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000This article examines Ptolemaic papyrological sources (Demotic and Greek) indicating the existence of marketplaces located next to the river during this period, which have so far been completely overlooked in the discussion on Egyptian markets. It focuses particularly on the location of marketplaces and their relation to settlements and the markets’ setting – whether they were surrounded by farmland or by buildings, and of what type. This analysis points to the highest parts of the riverbanks as the most likely location of marketplaces. Additionally, the article contains terminological remarks regarding the terms for the marketplace and the Nile in both Demotic and Greek.","PeriodicalId":41016,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Egyptian History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46362740","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Causes of the Emergence of Provincial Elites with Inscribed Monuments in the Late Old Kingdom: Case Studies and Methodology","authors":"Emil Martinet","doi":"10.1163/18741665-bja10013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-bja10013","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000The causes and processes that have led to the sudden rise of the provincial elites who had the wherewithal to commission inscribed monuments, especially from the end of the Fifth Dynasty (c.2350 BCE), remain poorly understood. This paper aims to highlight some of the main factors involved in this process, using specific case studies and a global and comparative approach. The results indicate greater levels of complexity than previously thought, and that no single, concurrent cause applied in all provinces. The paper also discusses methodological issues about how to reconstruct a causal system for the emergence and enrichment of provincial elites and, in particular, the need to study this process diachronically to achieve deeper insights into its mechanisms.","PeriodicalId":41016,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Egyptian History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48329959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hierarchy, Religion and Race: Nineteenth Century Philology and the Search for the Origins of the Egyptian Language","authors":"Katherine E. Davis","doi":"10.1163/18741665-bja10015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-bja10015","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000During the nineteenth century, early Egyptologists were still in the first stages of understanding Egyptian grammar, while at the same time comparative philologists were attempting to reconstruct the historical origins of languages and peoples. These two disciplines intersected and produced various models that situated the Egyptian language into broader world histories. This article explores how early Egyptological scholars during the mid-nineteenth century like Christian Bunsen, Richard Lepsius, and Leo Reinisch, as well as a constellation of figures from comparative philology, drew boundaries around the Egyptian language and speculated about its origins. Their work belonged to a broader intellectual culture where historical language – the nuts and bolts of grammar – became scientific data that revealed biblical truth for some, underpinned the divergent intellectual foundations of civilization for others, and for yet more determined the fate of a people in a manner that prefigured and eventually joined with biological racism.","PeriodicalId":41016,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Egyptian History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44653149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bolesław Prus’s Pharaoh(s) – Two Literary Visions of the Human Condition and Our Fascination with Ancient Egypt","authors":"Joanna Popielska-Grzybowska, L. Zinkow","doi":"10.1163/18741665-bja10010","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-bja10010","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This paper discusses two publications and two “pharaohs” (fictitious protagonists) in the historical and Egyptological context of a short story and a novel by Polish writer Aleksander Głowacki (a.k.a. Bolesław Prus). It looks at the observations of a writer fascinated by the dramas of powerful, extraordinary people and visions of a civilization that were firmly embedded in Poland and the whole of Europe at the end of the nineteenth century. The first discussed publication is a short story, A Legend of Old Egypt, on Ramzes (all names given in original spelling provided, either by the author in the case of the short story or the translator in the case of the novel) and his grandson, Horus – the first work in which Prus used “historical costume” to comment on the present and on the human condition. The plot of the masterpiece, Pharaoh, takes place in ancient Egypt and is a story of Ramses XIII’s life. The authors of this paper intend to explore the complexity of Prus’s protagonists against a historical and Egyptological background.","PeriodicalId":41016,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Egyptian History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48580241","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Was There Ever an Egyptian Empire in the Northern Levant? Debunking the Egyptological Myth of Dynasty 18","authors":"F. Zangani","doi":"10.1163/18741665-bja10009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-bja10009","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article sets out to debunk the Egyptological myth of Dynasty 18 as a successful imperial power through an evidence-based reconsideration of the local histories of five Syrian cities – Qadesh, Ugarit, Tunip, Qatna, and Niya. A combined analysis of Egyptian and cuneiform sources, including the recently published Hurro-Akkadian documents from Qatna, clearly indicates a progressive failure of the foreign policies of the pharaonic monarchy from Tuthmosid times through the Amarna Period, and this study challenges Egyptological consensus and denies the very existence of an Egyptian empire in the northern Levant. Theories from International Relations that question sovereignty and territoriality and the growing body of research on global cities and city diplomacy outline a promising avenue of future research to reconsider the nexus between diplomacy and the failure of imperialism, and to reappraise Dynasty 18 not as an imperialist power, but as a territorial state struggling to cope with the geopolitical and economic challenges of globalization.","PeriodicalId":41016,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Egyptian History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44764771","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Tutankhamun and Eastern Civilization: Víctor Mercante and the Beginnings of Egyptology in Argentina","authors":"Leila Salem","doi":"10.1163/18741665-bja10012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-bja10012","url":null,"abstract":"Even one hundred years after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, its repercussions can still be felt. In this paper we analyze the book entitled Tut-Ankh-Amon y la Civilización de Oriente (1928) by Víctor Mercante, who travelled to Egypt in 1923. This is the first book about Tutankhamun ever written in Spanish. In it, Carter’s discovery is revealed to the reader and an Aegean thesis is proposed so as to understand the historical context of the ancient pharaoh. The Aegean thesis refers to a proposal made by Mercante by means of which the Aegean civilization is directly credited with all cultural, trade, and political development during the Amarna Period. Mercante’s book constitutes a piece of writing from the margins of Egyptology, within the framework of Orientalism, and it marks the beginning of the discipline in Argentina.","PeriodicalId":41016,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Egyptian History","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47157384","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Reevaluating the Role of Inter-Polity Boundaries (tꜢšw) in Middle and New Kingdom Egypt","authors":"Oren Siegel","doi":"10.1163/18741665-bja10011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1163/18741665-bja10011","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Chains of frontier fortresses and the presence of boundary stelae have understandably encouraged scholars to emphasize parallels between Pharaonic political boundaries and contemporary political borders. However, ancient Egyptian territoriality and conceptions of political boundaries differed in several key ways. First, Pharaonic boundaries were not defined by their permeability, but rather their capacity to be altered by royal action. Second, specific territorial claims were often less vital than the sovereign act of claiming or marking a boundary. Finally, ancient Egyptian boundaries were often discussed in personal terms, as belonging to a particular pharaoh. They were not abstracted, linear features that aspired to an ahistorical permanence, but functioned as powerful, performative displays of political authority in liminal spaces. Recognizing these fundamental differences builds upon the insights of earlier scholarship and provides new perspectives on Pharaonic boundary-making practices.","PeriodicalId":41016,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Egyptian History","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-09-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42998180","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}